mammy
nounEtymology From mam + -y, or from mamma + -y.
1
Childish mamma; mother
2
US, Derogatory, Historical, Often In the southern United States, a black nanny employed to look after white children; or in the antebellum South, a female slave who was close to the household and looked after the children.
- That's what you for—to help white folks keep niggers down. That's why he sent you to me. They be calling you mammy in a few years. You be running the whole house when the old man dies.1979, Octavia Butler, Kindred
- Derived terms
- grandmammy, Mammygate
- Related terms
- mammy market, mammy wagon